The Little Theatre of Alexandria production of Hairspray received the most awards, with fifteen including Outstanding Musical. The Arlington Players’ The Seagull and Montgomery Playhouse’s Stones in His Pockets both received four awards (including Outstanding Play for Stones), and the Elden Street Players’ Ain’t Misbehavin’ received three awards.

The Little Theatre of Alexandria received a total of 17 awards, The Arlington Players received five, and both the Elden Street Players and Montgomery Playhouse received four awards.

There was one three-way tie, for Outstanding Set Painting in a Musical, which was shared by Kevin O’Dowd (Hairspray, Little Theatre of Alexandria), Cathy Rieder & James Villarrubia (Ain’t Misbehavin’, Elden Street Players), and April Dawn Weimer et al, (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Port Tobacco Players). There were three two-way ties: Outstanding featured actor in a musical (Chaz Coffin as “Seaweed Stubbs” in Hairspray at The Alliance Theatre, and Christopher Prince as “Ken Page” in Ain’t Misbehavin’ with the Elden Street Players); Outstanding lead actor in a play (J. McAndrew Breen as “Charlie Conlon etc.” in Stones in His Pockets at the Montgomery Playhouse; and Kevin S. Dykstra as “Jake Quinn etc.” in Stones in His Pockets at the Montgomery Playhouse); and Outstanding Choreography (Iván Dávila for Hairspray at the Little Theatre of Alexandria and John K. Monnett for 42nd Street with The Arlington Players).

In 2012, 132 shows are scheduled for adjudication across the thirty-three participating WATCH member companies, with 2nd Star Productions joining WATCH in 2012.

In each of the thirty-eight categories, five nominees were selected based on the average scores of eight judges. In some categories, due to score ties, more than five nominees are announced. Awards are provided in alphabetical order by nominee. The awards are listed by category and then by theater.